Winter has a certain magic to it. The world slows down, nights stretch longer, and mornings feel crisp and calm. I will be honest, I am counting down the days until winter solstice so the sun can come back longer.
There is something healing about watching the first snowfall coat the trees in quiet white, like nature pressing a reset button. But while the season carries a special kind of beauty, it also brings a long list of challenges, especially for your skin. The cold wind steals moisture faster than you can replenish it, indoor heating dries the air to desert-like levels, and the constant shift between freezing outdoor air and warm indoor environments confuses your skin’s natural barriers. One day your face feels tight, the next day flaky, and sometimes so irritated you don’t even want to wash it.
And trust me, the last thing you want to do is slather on some store-bought chemical lotions that have petroleum by-products and other hormone disrupters.
Caring for your skin in the winter requires more intention than most people realize. Your skin is not just reacting to cold; it’s responding to stress. The dryness, the temperature swings, the lack of humidity, the friction of winter clothing, and even your own habits all play a role in the winter skin experience. This is why so many people feel like their skin “suddenly changes” the moment the temperature drops, even if nothing in their routine has changed.
Let me walk you through a deeply nourishing and holistic approach to caring for your skin in winter. We’re going to talk about what your skin is going through, why winter dryness is not simply about moisture loss, and how you can shift your habits, products, and understanding of your body’s needs to carry a natural, healthy glow throughout the harshest months of the year.
By the end, you’ll have a full, warm, comforting guide you can return to again and again, year after year.
Why Skin Struggles So Much in the Winter
Winter skin issues feel sudden, but they start building long before you even notice the first signs. When the outside temperature drops, the environment begins to strip moisture away from your skin at a much faster rate. Cold air has less humidity, meaning there is almost nothing to help your skin maintain its natural hydration. Every time wind brushes past your face, it lifts away the thin layer of moisture that normally protects you. Even your breath—warm and moist—drifts upward, condensing and evaporating across your lower face, pulling more hydration with it.
Seriously, I used to go outside and feel the moisture almost zap right away from my skin.
Then you step inside. The air indoors, especially in homes with forced heating, is unbelievably dry. You may not see it or feel it the way you feel the cold outside, but your skin absolutely does. Indoor heat reduces humidity to such low levels that moisture begins to evaporate off your skin simply by existing in the room. Even sitting at home watching a movie can slowly dehydrate your skin without you moving a muscle.
As your skin loses moisture, it tries to compensate by producing more oil, but winter oil production often cannot keep up with the rate of water loss. And here’s where things get tricky. Many people respond by washing more aggressively, exfoliating more frequently, or applying more products that contain synthetic fillers or harsh preservatives, which actually worsen the dryness by disrupting the skin’s natural barrier. Instead of supporting your skin, these ingredients create a cycle of temporary relief followed by deeper dehydration.
That's exactly what Big Skincare wants to do: keep you hooked by never actually nourishing your skin! Only providing you the illusion of doing so.
Understanding this pattern is key to understanding how to care for your skin intentionally during winter. Your skin isn’t misbehaving. It’s protecting you the best it can with the tools it has. The goal is to support it, not fight it.
Your Skin Barrier: The Unsung Hero of Winter
Imagine your skin barrier as the front door to your home during a blizzard. If the door is sturdy, warm, and sealed, the storm can rage outside without affecting the comfort indoors. But if that door is cracked, flimsy, or poorly insulated, even the smallest gust seeps in and chills everything. Your skin barrier works the same way. Its job is to keep moisture in and keep irritants out. In winter, the barrier becomes your greatest ally—but also the area most easily damaged.
The barrier is made primarily of lipids, ceramides, and natural oils your body produces. These oils are not the same as the greasy residue many people associate with the word “oil.” These are structured, purposeful fats that hold your skin cells together like a mortar holds bricks. When that mortar breaks down, there is nothing to keep irritants from penetrating and moisture from escaping.
Winter weakens this barrier quickly. Every gust of cold wind, every hot shower, every time you press your face against a synthetic fiber scarf, every indoor heater blowing dry air across your cheeks—your barrier absorbs the hit. And when you apply topical products full of petroleum by-products and other toxic ingredients, , the barrier becomes even more compromised. People unknowingly use skincare that increases barrier damage while trying to solve dryness.
This is why winter skincare should be built around barrier support, nourishment, and protection, not attack, stripping, or over-correction. Once your barrier is strong, everything else becomes easier. Your skin stays hydrated. Redness calms. Irritation decreases. And your natural glow returns.
Hydration in Winter Starts From the Inside Out
One of the least talked about but most important parts of winter skincare is internal hydration. In summer, your body naturally craves water because you sweat and feel thirst more acutely. In winter, that instinct almost disappears. You may go hours without realizing you haven’t had a sip of water. Meanwhile, the air around you is continuously pulling moisture from your skin.
When your body is even slightly dehydrated, your skin becomes the first area to show it. You’ll feel extra tightness around your eyes, flakiness around your nose and mouth, and a dullness that no topical moisturizer seems to fix. Hydration is more than drinking water, though. Your body needs electrolytes, minerals, and healthy fats to retain moisture. Also, it is important to avoid seed oils as much as possible for your skin's health. Seed oils create internal inflammation that can actually interfere with your body’s ability to maintain hydration and skin elasticity.
Some of the best internal skin hydrators in winter come from nutrient-dense whole foods—raw milk, bone broth, mineral-rich salts, fruits with natural water content, and healthy fats such as butter, ghee, tallow, and cold-pressed olive oil. They keep your internal environment balanced so your skin doesn’t have to work overtime to stay dewy and healthy.
Why You Should Reevaluate Your Cleansing Routine in the Winter
Most people don’t realize that the way you wash your face matters just as much as how you moisturize it—especially in winter. Cleansers that foam heavily or strip oils aggressively may feel satisfying in summer but become a disaster once cold weather hits. In winter, your skin is already losing moisture faster than it can replenish it. If you wash with something that removes your natural oils entirely, you start the day at a deficit your skin cannot recover from.
This is why I only cleanse my skin with an oil cleanser that cleans the skin without stripping its protective layer. When you cleanse with a lipid-based formula, you’re dissolving dirt and makeup without disrupting the natural structure of your skin barrier.
Another thing to consider is that many commercial cleansers—even ones marketed as “hydrating”—contain synthetic ingredients that oxidize in the bottle long before you ever open it. Once applied to your face, synthetic ingredients can cause more dryness, irritation, and redness.
Moisture vs. Hydration: Why Winter Requires Both
So many people misunderstand the difference between moisture and hydration. Hydration involves water. Moisture involves oils or fats. In summer, the skin receives hydration more easily because humidity is higher. In winter, your skin desperately needs both, but most people only address one side of the equation.
You may apply a watery serum and hope it helps, but without a protective layer on top, that water evaporates quickly. Or you may apply a thick cream loaded with fragrance and petroleum by-products and expect it to moisturize, only to find that it sits on top of the skin without actually hydrating or nourishing it.
True winter skincare includes both hydration and moisture, but the quality of the moisture matters. My tallow balms penetrate deeply and reinforces your natural lipid barrier. But a product loaded with fragrance and synthetic junk will sit on the skin’s surface and ultimately dry you out more.
This is why winter skin always improves when you use what your ancestors used—simple, whole, stable fats that mimic your skin’s natural oils. When you seal hydration into your skin with real nourishment instead of synthetic barriers, your complexion stays soft, supple, and strong even through the harshest temperatures.
I have harsh winters and my skin feels impenetrable now that I use tallow morning and evening.
How Gua Sha Supports Winter Skin and Revives a Dull Complexion
Winter slows everything down, including your circulation, and your skin feels the effects quickly. Color fades from your cheeks, your complexion looks dull, and tension builds in the jaw and brow as your face naturally tightens against the cold. This is why gua sha becomes such a powerful winter skincare ritual. Instead of stripping or irritating the skin the way many exfoliants do in dry weather, gua sha boosts circulation gently, brings fresh oxygen to the surface, and helps your skin feel alive again.
Each stroke of the stone encourages lymphatic drainage, reducing the puffiness that often appears from indoor heating, lack of movement, and seasonal sluggishness. The immediate result is a face that appears more sculpted, refreshed, and awake. Winter skin desperately needs movement and warmth, and gua sha provides both without damaging your barrier.
Gua sha also helps soften facial tension, which naturally increases in the cold months. Releasing this tension smooths the appearance of fine lines and gives your face a more relaxed, radiant look. Using the tool with one of my tallow moisturizers or serums allows it to glide effortlessly while delivering deeper nourishment to the skin, something oxidized seed oils simply cannot offer in winter.
Over time, gua sha becomes one of the most gentle yet effective ways to revive winter skin, bringing back natural glow, improving tone, and supporting your barrier when it needs extra care the most.
How Winter Stress Affects Your Skin More Than You Think
Winter isn’t just physically harsh on your skin. It can be emotionally heavy too. Shorter daylight hours, less time outside, and a slower lifestyle can affect your stress hormones, which directly influence your skin’s behavior. Stress increases cortisol, and cortisol slows skin healing, disrupts oil production, weakens the barrier, and worsens redness and irritation.
People sometimes believe winter skin is purely environmental, but your internal environment influences your complexion just as much. Taking walks outside during mid-day light, consuming nourishing warm foods, maintaining a stable sleep schedule, and finding small ways to bring warmth and comfort into your routine all help your skin recalibrate.
Try to be outside in the sun as much as possible! Even if the ground is cold, grounding barefoot for just a brief moment can even help improve circulation and lower stress.
Your skin is connected to your whole being. Winter doesn’t just dry your skin—it also slows your spirit a little. Knowing this helps you treat your skin with patience, gentleness, and compassion.
Why Your Skincare Products Matter More Than Ever in Winter
One of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to treat winter dryness with summer products. Winter requires richness. Winter requires density. Winter requires ingredients with structure—fats that mimic your skin’s own. A great thing about tallow is that it molds to your skin's needs throughout the year.
This is why tallow-based skincare has seen a huge resurgence. Tallow mirrors the composition of human skin, absorbs deeply, doesn’t clog pores, and strengthens the skin barrier in a way store-bought skincare simply cannot. Its stability makes it ideal for winter’s harsh conditions, and its nutrient profile supports healing, softness, and long-lasting moisture.
In contrast, big skincare products create a temporary softness but often worsen dryness beneath the surface. You end up reapplying constantly, never achieving true nourishment. Winter skincare should not feel like a chore of constant reapplication. It should feel like your skin is finally being fed what it needs.
Winter Skin Needs Nourishment, Not More Products
Winter can feel harsh, but your skincare routine doesn’t have to. The more you simplify, nourish, hydrate, and protect, the easier it becomes to maintain a healthy complexion. Your skin does not need harsher exfoliants or more synthetic ingredient filled lotions. It needs support. It needs patience. It needs ingredients that work with your biology, not against it.
Winter skincare becomes effortless when you understand what your skin is truly asking for. When you give it hydration, ancestral fats, gentle cleansing, and emotional calm, the glow you achieve in winter often surpasses even your summer radiance.
I look in the mirror, even during winter, and am in love with how my skin looks. That is thanks to my Arvoti tallow and natural skincare!
If you’re ready to transform your winter skincare routine, start by removing products filled with fragrance and synthetic ingredients, stripping cleansers, and petroleum by-products that weaken your barrier. Replace them with rich, stable, natural fats and gentle, nourishing formulas that reinforce your skin’s natural defenses. Your winter glow begins with the choices you make today. Your skin will feel the difference—soft, calm, protected, and truly hydrated.
FAQs
Why does my skin get so dry every winter even if I use moisturizer?
Moisturizers made with synthetic fillers often sit on top of the skin rather than penetrating deeply. Winter dryness requires nourishment that supports the skin barrier, not products that temporarily mask the issue.
How can I hydrate my skin in winter without it feeling greasy?
When you choose stable, nourishing fats that mimic the skin’s structure like my tallow, your skin absorbs them without feeling heavy.
Does winter really make my skin age faster?
Winter dryness can accelerate the appearance of fine lines because dehydrated skin has less plumpness. Keeping your barrier strong and well-nourished helps maintain youthful elasticity.
Are hot showers bad for winter skin?
Very hot water strips natural oils quickly, weakening your barrier. Warm—not hot—water is kinder on skin during cold months.
Do seed oils really make winter skin worse?
Yes. Seed oils oxidize quickly and weaken the barrier, leading to increased dryness, redness, and irritation, especially in winter’s harsh conditions.
